That's all it took to leave a potential satisfying feast with an arsenic aftertaste. A single changeup misbehaved, Wilton Lopez explained, his head shaking in disbelief.

The Rockies reliever entered Monday's season opener against the Brewers with every reason to expect success. The Rockies' lone offseason acquisition lived up to his reputation as a groundball machine during spring training, cementing his status as the team's top setup man. The Rockies wanted him so badly last winter that they flew a team official to Nicaragua to conduct an examination on his elbow before signing off on a trade with the Astros.

Carlos Gonzalez watches his solo home run in the fifth inning with Milwaukee catcher Jonathan Lucroy. More photos. (Jeffrey Phelps, The Associated Press)

With the game on the line, Rockies manager Walt Weiss didn't want anyone else pitching in the eighth inning. It was Lopez's moment against Milwaukee's Aramis Ramirez.

"And I didn't have it," Lopez said.

Time begins on opening day. And it also stops hearts.

In an entertaining afternoon, the Rockies featured hints of redemption and a chilling failure of execution by the bullpen in their 5-4, 10-inning walk-off loss at Miller Park.

The box score suggests that Adam Ottavino suffered the loss on Jonathan Lucroy's sacrifice fly, but this game oozed through the Rockies' fingers in the eighth, when Lopez coughed up a 3-1 lead.

For seven innings, the Rockies executed fundamentals, save for Chris Nelson's baserunning mistake that defused a potential rally in the fourth. Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez hit home runs, handing Lopez a two-run lead. Starter Jhoulys Chacin made a statement, working into the seventh inning, allowing just three hits on 94 pitches.

And yet, the beauty of baseball is that it guarantees nothing, demands final resolution.

Rockies pitcher Jhoulys Chacin pitches to the Brewers during the first inning in Milwaukee on opening day. More photos. (Darren Hauck, Reuters)

In the eighth, a combination of bad location and bad luck ambushed Lopez. With two outs and a two-run lead, Lopez fired a sinker at Ryan Braun, who muscled a groundball toward left field. Tulowitzki kept it in the infield, briefly contemplating a jump throw to first from deep short, then holding the ball. Norichika Aoki scored on the play, making it 3-2.

"Braun runs well and got out of the box good. And I didn't think I had a play at second, either. I didn't want to force a throw and put the winning run in scoring position," Tulowitzki said.

Braun's speed, often overlooked, came into play soon enough. Lopez evened the count on Ramirez at 2-2. He had set him up by throwing sinkers inside. The situation demanded a changeup down and away, he figured, an ideal pitch to produce a weak groundball. Had the pitch faded another foot, Weiss might have had a lineup card worthy of hiding behind glass on a shelf in his managerial debut.

"It just came back across the plate," Lopez said. "It was a mistake."

Ramirez lined the pitch down the left-field line, scoring Rickie Weeks. Then came misfortune. Carlos Gonzalez raced to cut the ball off in the corner, and it clipped the wall where it juts out by the tarp, leaving him no play at the plate.

"Yeah, it feels good because it helped us win the game," Ramirez said.

Milwaukee led 4-3, but Lopez was spared a loss when Dexter Fowler, with the Rockies down to their last out, smoked closer John Axford's 95 mph fastball into the right-field seats in the ninth, tying the score.

Lopez saw it all, remaining on the bench with his teammates rather than retire to the clubhouse. He watched as Ottavino invited trouble in the 10th by hitting Weeks. A pair of walks, to Braun — the complexion of his at-bat changed when Josh Rutledge couldn't handle Wilin Rosario's one-hop throw on Weeks' stolen base — and Ramirez followed, loading the bases.

Agony arrived with Lucroy's high flyball to center field.

"It stinks to lose on opening day. And it really stinks to be on the mound when it happens," Ottavino said. "I thought the slider was a pretty good pitch, but give him credit for getting the job done."

Lopez watched the Brewers flee the dugout to greet Weeks racing in from third base. Lopez sat silent for a few moments. Gonzalez noticed, and consoled his teammate.

"No one is perfect. He felt badly," Gonzalez said. "He was so quiet, the way you feel when you do something wrong. We believe in him. We all know he's had success in the past. It's one day. It hurts, but we have 161 left to do better things."

TUESDAY Rockies at Brewers, 6:10 p.m., ROOT; 850 AMJorge De La Rosa insists there was no epiphany during spring training, no single pitch that signaled his comeback was on track. Twenty-two months removed from elbow surgery, he believes he's ready to contribute again. "I never lost my confidence this spring. My delivery is right again," he said. Look for him to use his off-speed pitches early in counts to keep the Brewers' battery of right-handed hitters off balance. Milwaukee's Marco Estrada likes to pitch "backward" and will throw his changeup to righties and lefties. Troy Tulowitzki homered off the fellow Long Beach State product last season.

Lockheed says object part of 'sensor technology' testing that ended ThursdayWhat the heck is that thing? It's fair to assume that question was on the minds of many people who traveled along Colo. 128 south of Boulder this week if they happened to catch a glimpse of what appeared to be a large, silver projectile perched alongside the highway and pointed north toward town.

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